The US/Imperial core/West/etc. is heavily taught to fear and avoid everything DPRK without question. It runs deep – I’ve seen numerous (false) claims that DPRK athletes that don’t win gold will be executed and not a single person stopped to consider that these athletes didn’t get gold at the qualifiers, prior Olympics, etc.
All that said to mean yes, they probably do purposefully avoid interacting with them. The language barrier excuse doesn’t make sense because athletes from all sorts of other countries still congratulate each other. Ultimately they, too, are just individuals representing a nation; I’ve heard from a 2018 AMA with a Winter Olympics contestant that they’re polite but quiet. It’s a personal choice.
The US/Imperial core/West/etc. is heavily taught to fear and avoid everything DPRK without question. It runs deep – I’ve seen numerous (false) claims that DPRK athletes that don’t win gold will be executed and not a single person stopped to consider that these athletes didn’t get gold at the qualifiers, prior Olympics, etc.
All that said to mean yes, they probably do purposefully avoid interacting with them. The language barrier excuse doesn’t make sense because athletes from all sorts of other countries still congratulate each other. Ultimately they, too, are just individuals representing a nation; I’ve heard from a 2018 AMA with a Winter Olympics contestant that they’re polite but quiet. It’s a personal choice.